Amazon.com video review:
Vincent Price gives an atypically restrained performance as the sole
survivor of a worldwide plague that revives its victims as bloodthirsty
vampires. During the day, he canvasses his abandoned hometown, tracking
down and stalking his former friends and neighbors, always making sure to
return before nightfall, when the dead rise to assault his fortified house.
Hope arrives in the form of an apparently normal young woman (Franca
Bettoia), but her agenda proves to be even more sinister than that of the
vampires.
Based on the 1954 novel by coscripter Matheson (whose displeasure with the
final product spurred the use of a pseudonym), this Italian-made production
is best known for its influence on George Romero's Night of the Living
Dead. The similarities between the two films go beyond the presence of
shuffling zombies and housebound heroes; both feature taboo-breaking
scenes of interfamilial murder, and both end on bleak,
dystopian notes. While The Last Man on Earth lacks the political and
darkly satirical shadings (and graphic gore) that make Night of the
Living Dead a more memorable experience, the combination of Bava-esque
Gothic atmosphere and bleak, documentary-style camerawork by directors
Ragona and Salkow (the brother of Price's agent Lester Salkow) lend
themselves to moments of pure frisson that compare laudably to Romero's
film. Matheson's novel also provided the source material for the awkward
1971 Charlton Heston vehicle The Omega Man. A planned third version,
helmed by Ridley Scott and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, was shut down in
its earliest stages due to skyrocketing budget costs. --Paul Gaita
